The establishment known as Home on the Range traces its roots to circa 1929, when Samuel Arthur Peterson and his wife, Beulah Peterson, settled a 640-acre homestead around this spot. Living with legacy injury from a battlefield gas attack in World War I, Samuel moved here on doctors’ advice that the region’s climate would be therapeutic. While Peterson’s intent was to farm the land, conditions proved unsuitable. This setback righted the course of history, however, and the site began its amble to fame when Beulah, starting with a single barrel of gasoline, set up a modest filling station in 1941. Soon, three hand-powered Sinclair pumps were covering the fueling chores, and the entrepreneurial Petersons diversified their automotive business with mechanic work and, for the tough-luck motorists in this outback, towing services.

In addition, a small but welcome store came to occupy the homestead’s main structure. From this, folks could procure auto supplies, savor some home cooking, and, perhaps most importantly, enjoy the ever-popular Cokes, iced down with snow carried in from Green Mountain’s highlands. Over time, the store capitalized on the region’s mineral wealth, too, offering to the geologically-inclined rock specimens and high-quality jade — next to uranium ore, perhaps this area’s most attractive deposit.

When the Split Rock post office closed in 1943, Beulah’s assumption of local mail-handling duties added to the outfit’s functions and boosted its importance. Fast-forward to the 1950s, and the name “Home on the Range Stage Stop” was applied to the affair, now expanded to offer cabins for travelers and hunters — both those of pronghorn and of jade. Following Samuel’s passing around 1952, Beulah carried on with managing the whole operation. Though thoroughly-modern electric power arrived here mid-decade, the compound didn’t enjoy indoor plumbing until the mid-1960s.

In the early 1960s, Beulah remarried to Keith Walker, and together they kept Home on the Range humming. As Jeffrey City ascended, the site also came to serve as a bus stop. In the good years, there were two coach visits a day, with that traffic also bringing the mail. By the time the uranium bustle peaked for Jeffrey City, Beulah and Keith ran a full-service station at a busy crossroads. Home on the Range wound up riding the local mining wave fully, only going dim long after the boomtown did. And, in contrast to many of the once frantic, but ultimately fleeting, elements of Jeffrey City, the structural aspects of this hardy enterprise have endured. A remote treasure, the landmark has passed through three generations who have preserved this roadside curiosity for all passersby.